Don't feel alone. Lots of folks, experienced riders included, sort of balk at the notion of a tandem on real MTB trails. Tight switchbacks/maneuvering between obstacles and mandatory wheel lofts are the downfalls. Other than that, you can tandem down any trail you can ride on a single. You can actually descend steep terrain with less likelihood of an endo. The core workout is phenomenal. Wanna make single biking seem easy? Get hot on a tandem

Man I can't believe it the summer is over and its still well over 100 degrees here. The board here has been quiet all summer so I hope everybody has been doing some riding. I just wanted to post here to say hey to all our friends out there in tandemland.....we miss riding with you. Keep the rubber side down!
Patrick & Maria

We've been out of the game with the wife on assignment elsewhere. Our grandiose plans for this year are again waylaid, but no dampener on enthusiasm. I re-purposed one of the frame bags for my single full squish and rode the CO Trail in attempt to pacify the tandeming jones (admittedly close, but no cigar).

Hope to share some saddle time with you guys and any other fun-loving teams later this year or next. Thanks for the ping...crank on!

Hey all so cal tandems.......summers over and we have a sitter for Saturday the 17th. We're going to go ride, weather permitting. If you'd like to join we'd love to have you. We haven't decided where we are going yet. If you want to join and have an idea let me know.

Hey All,
I just found this site specific to Tandems awesome... I live in San Fernando Valley area and am interested in putting together some Tandem Rides once a month or so.( MTB of Course and maybe some road if we have too lol?) If there are any Tandems or rides out there please throw your 2cents in.

Rene,
We are down in OC, but know of a few tandems up your way. Where do you guys ride? We've been over to Sycamore canyon w/ Okayfine ( very fun couple to ride with) and also been to Chesebro but that was on a hot summer day ( not too fun). We have some trails down here if you ever like to go on a little road trip. Next Saturday we have a sitter so we're doing ride if you're interested.

Team Zibell does group ride invites frequently (as shown above). We ride the Santa Monicas 99% of the time (when we don't travel to visit Team Zibell). Mostly Sycamore since we live close, but also Cheeseboro (but only in non-summer due to temps and lack of water and shade), with the occasional Backbone out-and-back.

I think most of the SoCal teams have ridden with Team Zibell, since they put out invites more than anyone else.

Rene, a big tandem group ride would be a blast. But life happens and it's a hard to get people together on a set time and place. We found that if we just put it out that we're doing a ride then whoever wants to join us does. The most tandems we had show was 3, counting us. No problem because we always have a blast.
Thanks Julian for the nice words. Hope you and Sally are doing well.

Been lurking here for a while and thinking of getting a MTB tandem. We've been mountain biking since the mid 80's and riding a road tandem for 3yrs, so we thought we would like to give it a try off road.

SoCal tandem

First trail ride

There is a large group doing Blackstar and the Motorway at 0800 this Saturday the 22nd of Dec. If some other tandems are going we would join in (but not do the motorway part)other wise we will be riding the Bell Ridge Trail from the waterfalls at Dove Canyon in Rancho Santa Margarita to Caspers Park and back, approx 20 miles. We would love company if anyone wants to ride.

Posted some pics in the ECDM thread of the new ride. But here's another

There is a large group doing Blackstar and the Motorway at 0800 this Saturday the 22nd of Dec. If some other tandems are going we would join in (but not do the motorway part)other wise we will be riding the Bell Ridge Trail from the waterfalls at Dove Canyon in Rancho Santa Margarita to Caspers Park and back, approx 20 miles. We would love company if anyone wants to ride.

Posted some pics in the ECDM thread of the new ride. But here's another

Nice ECDM, that is almost identical to ours. Can't join this weekend but we'll keep our eyes open for future rides. We have done Motorway a few times on the tandem, it is actually not a bad trail except the numerous water bars are a PITA. Just curious where you would come down if you didn't end up riding Motorway?

Don, thanks for the invite. We have to pass this time as we are heading to a family Christmas function on Saturday. I heard it may rain, I hope it holds off for you to get a ride in. Love the bike, very nice. Even if you don't have any takers at this time, go ahead and post future rides. We'd love to join you guys on a ride. Have fun.

First dirt ride on the Ventana

We decided to do the Bell View ridge trail from home with friends from our road club. Only about 12 miles on an out and back along the ridge but beautiful clear skys and mid 50 temps. Helped some other riders fix a chain on the way back and had to use 2 new pins to get him going. As luck would have it Ali snapped his chain near the end and had to push about a half mile!

Here's a pic of us enjoying the sunshine and catching our breath after the first steep climb of the day. Thats Ali on the left with his wife Helen and my wife Terri on the right. We were very impressed with the Ventanas ride and ability to absorb some big hits that we usually jump on our singles. I think we're going to like this!

Hey Don, what route are you riding tomorrow? If I can get the team up for a ride Aliso sounds fun. We haven't been riding much lately and we will be towing a tag-a-long, so we may be a little slow. The route we ride starts at the ranger station and up the main trail to cholla and we exit the park and run thru the neighborhood to the top of cholla. From there we take the ridge up to top of the world. Then thru back thru the neighborhood to meadows and down and out.
If you wouldn't mind a slow team to ride with we'd like to join.

Aliso Wood

Originally Posted by zibell

Hey Don, what route are you riding tomorrow? If I can get the team up for a ride Aliso sounds fun. We haven't been riding much lately and we will be towing a tag-a-long, so we may be a little slow. The route we ride starts at the ranger station and up the main trail to cholla and we exit the park and run thru the neighborhood to the top of cholla. From there we take the ridge up to top of the world. Then thru back thru the neighborhood to meadows and down and out.
If you wouldn't mind a slow team to ride with we'd like to join.

Patrick & Maria
Fullerton,CA

Sorry I didn't catch your post earlier but it was nice meeting you at the park Patrick! Wish we had more time to talk with you and your wife but we had a large group of singles from work doing a ride too. Great day for a ride there, we also went out around the neighborhood to the top of Cholla then up the ridge to top of the World where I got a pic of a friend and his 13 yr old son on his first ride there. You can just see Santa Catalina Island off to the right. We came back down Mathis with some of the group and the rest went to Meadows.

Don,
It was very nice seeing that beautiful Orange Ventana in person. Oh, it was also nice to meet you and Terri. We ended up running into some friends on our way in/their way out. Then we saw a herd of deer I the meadow on the way up the canyon. When we made it thru the neighborhood and up the ridge line we loved the views of Catalina Island. We made it up that killer clime up to Mathis and decided it was straight down Mathis and back to the car.
We'll keep you posted on when we ride again.

Hey guys, Maria and I have a sitter for our son on Saturday and we're up for a ride. Our sitter arrives at 8am so we can meet around 8:30-8:45. I've been sick with the flu last week and we've been off the bike for about a month, but I'm ready for a ride. We haven't thought about where to ride, maybe Santiago Oaks or El Moro or something fun.

Hey guys, Maria and I have a sitter for our son on Saturday and we're up for a ride. Our sitter arrives at 8am so we can meet around 8:30-8:45. I've been sick with the flu last week and we've been off the bike for about a month, but I'm ready for a ride. We haven't thought about where to ride, maybe Santiago Oaks or El Moro or something fun.

Patrick & Maria
Fullerton, Ca

Okay, we're up for either one. We have never done Santiago Oaks so would need directions. El Moro is more familiar but it's been a few years.

Hey Don & Terri, nice to hear you're up to ride. Well as for destinations, El Moro is a lot like riding @ Aliso very similar with mostly fire road with a small amount of single track mixed in. Santiago Oaks is located in the Irvine Regional Park and its a little more technical as its mostly single track with a bunch of switchbacks. If you're up for it we'd love to show you around Santigo Oaks. Let us know what you think.

Hey Don & Terri, nice to hear you're up to ride. Well as for destinations, El Moro is a lot like riding @ Aliso very similar with mostly fire road with a small amount of single track mixed in. Santiago Oaks is located in the Irvine Regional Park and its a little more technical as its mostly single track with a bunch of switchbacks. If you're up for it we'd love to show you around Santigo Oaks. Let us know what you think.

Yes Don, enter IRP off the top of Jamboree. Lot #3 is the 3rd lot after you enter you make the 1st left and drive around to the 3rd lot, it will be on the right.
If there are any other tandems out there that would like to join us we are always happy to ride with more of the big bikes. This is a fun ride!

Just a reminder if anybody would like to join Don & Terri and Maria & I on a ride tomorrow morning we'd love to have you join us.

Patrick & Maria

Had a great ride today with Patrick and Maria at Santiago Oaks! They are amazing on climbing switchbacks! We have a lot to learn from you two. The weather was sunny and warm and the views from the top all the way out to Catalina Island were fantastic. Lunch at the Cronic Taco after the ride was excellent.

Don & Terri, We had a blast yesterday with you guys @ Santiago Oaks. It is always a fun place to ride and challenge ourselves. It was a perfect day for a ride and you're right the views were beautiful. Lunch after a good ride is always the best ever.
When we get another nice Saturday maybe we can come down your way with our son and ride some of your local trails.

Don, We'd love to ride with you and Terri again. We'll have our son with us, do you think we could do this toying a tag-a-long? We can ride most trails toying him as long as they aren't too steep or too tight. Last weekend was our date Saturday but Maria was sick so we haven't ridden in a couple of weeks. Let us know.

Don, We'd love to ride with you and Terri again. We'll have our son with us, do you think we could do this toying a tag-a-long? We can ride most trails toying him as long as they aren't too steep or too tight. Last weekend was our date Saturday but Maria was sick so we haven't ridden in a couple of weeks. Let us know.

Patrick & Maria
Fullerton, CA

The ridge trail would be fine for the tag along, no worse that Aliso Wood you ran with it a few months ago. There is one rough spot from the last bad rain we had that you may want to walk it up though. We could meet at the trail head between the two waterfalls/fountains at Plano Trabuco and Dove Canyon Drive at about 08:30 Sunday?
We have a long road tandem ride to Seal Beach planned with our road group on Saturday.

Bell View Trail

We had another great ride today with Patrick, Maria and their son Adam. Also along was Mike and April on single bikes. We explored the whole ridgeline and a few trails in Caspers Park on the Ortega Highway. We got 22 miles with just over 3000ft of climbing. We finished off the ride and had lunch at Friends Sports Bar, and some 1/2lb burgers! Yum!!!

Hey Don, Thanks for showing us your local trails. We had a fun time. Adam really had a blast checking out all the plants, flowers, and creatures. He enjoyed the fact we rode by Starr Ranck. It was a blast riding with you & Terri and Mike & April. It was a long ride and when we got home we all passed out. Those were nice pics. Here are the pics I took.

MTB ride Sunday

[QUOTE=zibell;10274253 Hey Don, Thanks for showing us your local trails. We had a fun time. Adam really had a blast checking out all the plants, flowers, and creatures. He enjoyed the fact we rode by Starr Ranck. It was a blast riding with you & Terri and Mike & April. It was a long ride and when we got home we all passed out. Those were nice pics. Here are the pics I took.[/QUOTE]

Sorry for the short notice but we will be doing a portion of the recent Rwanda 25/50 mile ride on Sunday. It will be about 15 to 16 miles as we will not be starting at the Oakley building but at the waterfalls at Dove Canyon Drive and Plano Trabuco in Rancho Santa Margarita. (The same start place of our last ride but a different trail) Start time is 0830 Sunday morning and should be about a 2 1/2 hour ride depending on stops.

On Saturday 10-12, we were taking our old beast to Hulda Crooks to get in some climbing and some techy singletrack. As we were driving up Mt View, and crossing Barton Rd., we saw three tandem teams at the light. At least two were on full suspension rigs. We honked and pointed towards Hulda Crooks as we went through the intersection, but I'm sure that they were probably on the end of their ride.
Anyone out there know who they are?
We'd like to hook up with some other teams out here in the IE.